My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

So it hit 77 degrees here today. Yay! I decided to spend part of the afternoon on the pond since I'm working from home lately. I added another pump to circulate water and vacuumed the bottom and filled the water to the top. Also I pulled out some brown sedges to make everything look nice. Unfortunately I did have to take out a dead Koi the other day. That was sad, but all the other fish look good. At some point I need to get my filter running, but need help so I'm waiting on that.

 

[Lisak1]

Yesterday was GORGEOUS! My fish were sunning themselves all day, eating algae like crazy!

 

[Tula]

Sorry about the loss of a koi, but happy to hear all the others look good We've had two gorgeous days of warm weather and the toads are trilling....love is in the pond. My 4 koi are all doing well and Cha Cha is gorging herself on toad eggs.

 

[cas]

Cha Cha is gorging herself on toad eggs

Interesting.... my koi wont touch the toad eggs or tadpoles.

 

[Tula]

Interesting.... my koi wont touch the toad eggs or tadpoles.

I know ! It's so weird, she is the only one who is eating them...kind of weird ....but as a chagoi, she's kind of a little piggie Of course, I guess I could be wrong, but she keeps going over to the area with the floating plants, where they are.

 

[CometKeith]

I took this picture Saturday. Now they are mostly at the bottom because it
got a lot colder. We received 2-3 inches of snow today! You can see 4 koi in the picture. Three on the left side and one In the front. The rest are all goldfish. There are a few more Koi in the pond you can’t see.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Looks good!! Lots of pretty fish!! It's been cooler here too and off and on snow but mostly all melted now.

 

[Lisak1]

You might be in for more snow tonight @CometKeith - I think it will miss us here in the northern 'burbs, but the city and south may get one last hurrah!

 

[CometKeith]

Looks good!! Lots of pretty fish!! It's been cooler here too and off and on snow but mostly all melted now.

Hi Colleen. I hope you are doing okay and I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you for the compliment. Yes April is a winter month in Chicago!

 

[CometKeith]

You might be in for more snow tonight @CometKeith - I think it will miss us here in the northern 'burbs, but the city and south may get one last hurrah!

Lisa so we got snow but I refused to shovel because I saw it was going to get warmer in the afternoon. it was all gone by later that day... I still need to set up my filter but I need to figure out how to drain it first. The drain nozzle is very close to the cement floor in my garage and hard to put a bucket underneath it. I wish I would have raised it on blocks before we installed it! There is a threaded fitting at the nozzle but I need to go to HD to find something to fit on it and not thrilled about doing that trip right now!

 

[sissy]

A lot of hardware stores here are delivering what ever you need .But if you don't know what you exactly need it does not help .I have to go to lowes but they are really not taking any chances here .They have locked up most of the carts and only allow so many people in the store at a time and wipe down the carts as soon as you leave .They spray the whole cart .I have to go get some stuff but it is all outdoors stuff so will feel safer .Nurseries here have been doing great on selling plants here and even lowered the prices to help people heal during this stressful time .Tomato plants for a 6 pack are now a dollar and all vegetable and flower packs are from a dollar to 1.25 a pack

 

[Tula]

Our green houses are open again. They limit how many can enter ( no one was there, had the place to ourselves !) and sanitize credit card machine before you use it. It was such a lift to just wander around looking at the plants and trees ! This particular plant farm also has a blue heron rookery !

 

[sissy]

I do not know what it is but when I go in a garden center it really does lift my spirits and makes me feel like the world is still out there and it will get back to normal soon .One of the garden centers I go to has ponds

 

[CometKeith]

Our green houses are open again. They limit how many can enter ( no one was there, had the place to ourselves !) and sanitize credit card machine before you use it. It was such a lift to just wander around looking at the plants and trees ! This particular plant farm also has a blue heron rookery !

There is a big garden center a few blocks from us. It takes up at least 3 city blocks and has almost everything.... except plants. employees and customers! It's so sad as it's been closed since mid March and the sign in front says opening TBD. I feel sorry for all the people that worked there and relied on those jobs.
I did apply for a PPP SBA loan for our business. The bank finally called me today and said they have our application and needed some details to finalize it. I mentioned at the end that I had a stupid question and asked if there was any SBA money for the loan we were applying for and the person said no, but if there is more funding we will be on the top of the list. Yes us and 25 million Chase customers that didn't get anything last time! I'm not holding my breath... I feel a little like we were taken advantage of because everyone in the government promised there would be plenty of money for small businesses and not to worry. Not only did we pay our employees when they were sitting home I also paid a couple independent contractors that work mostly for us. I felt that if we got the PPP money it would cover everything so I was trying to be nice. I guess I should have just furlowed everyone and let them go on unemployment like everyone else!

 

[CometKeith]

I took these pics yesterday. All my fish are doing well the last month. My filter has been running a week and the water clarity is slowly getting better. I have been feeding them fall/spring diet for the last week even though the temps have been 45-50. It's supposed to get in the mid 50's this week. I'm guessing the water temps are low to mid 40's right now. So I'm thinking of another project. Possibly getting another filter and daisy chain it to the existing one? I'm not sure if my pump will be strong enough for two. I bought the 4000 gallon pressurized filter last year but now I wish I bought the 8000 gal one. My pond is about 3000 gallons. Oh I have been looking at Koi again! I lost one fish in the last year and was thinking of getting one or two more.... There seems to be some really good deals on Koi right now. I
know it doesn't make sense to think about more filtration and more fish at the same time as they are really incompatible concepts!